Thursday, August 4, 2011

Remembrance of a young friend, Sam Vincent

I took the news very hard. My daughter called me this morning, sobbing terribly in the phone.

“What is it sweetie? Are you alright? What's the matter?” My heart racing.

“Sam's dead.”

“What...”

Sam was my daughter's first boyfriend.

“Oh, sweetheart, no!” All day I have felt like I had to vomit.

Sam was 21, two years younger than my daughter. Their love affair had ended by the late tenth or early eleventh grade, but they had renewed a warm friendship over the past months.

Sam's girlfriend of the last few years was Arleen. It was real. My daughter was also her friend. Arleen was killed in a bicycle accident four months ago – she was struck by a car, just before she was to graduate with her nursing degree.

Back in the day I had given Sam a high paying gig, when I was a sucessful caterer. I paid him $100 plus tips for a six hour stint. I did the same thing for a couple of other boys in my daughter's circle. Eventually, they all became line cooks in respectable Bay Area restuarants without having wasted a lot of money on culinary school. This legacy has been a point of pride.

I ran into Sam on the street for the first time in a couple of years just a few of weeks ago. He recognized me immediately, and in a brief second I recognize him. He was so different for the sullen 16 year old I knew from the past. He was beeming, so happy to see me, and the feeling was immediately mutual.

Blog Archive

Ken Eastman

Ken Eastman entered college in 1972, and he stayed there until 1990. Having been thrown back into the real world, he soon found an unreal job in the rare and art book department at Moe's, where he remains. He could be called “a stayer.” He enjoys good food, like many of his fellow citizens in Berkeley, and has been told on various restaurant visits that the kitchen has now closed and he must leave.
Moe's requested that he contribute a blog to the store's website, months ago; and he has repeatedly assured all concerned that his debute posting will astound by its length, complexity, detailed documentation, and polished prose. He assured me it will appear “in the near future.”
He brings to his job a purported knowledge of numerous Asian languages, and has been working, as an agent of Moe's, on the appraisal of a Japanese and a Chinese book, for the last two years.